Horses at the Exhibition

A couple of weeks ago, my friend John suggested we go to the track to shoot some horses before heading to see the new Batman movie. You see, after much waiting and anticipation, he finally got his Canon 1DX. He also previously picked up a used 400mm 2.8 and was itching to try out the combination on some action. I happily agreed and got my meager Canon 50D + 70-200 2.8 ready to go.

The skies opened up before we left – my wife indicated that she thought our outing was obviously cancelled. I explained that a little rain would not stop John and his weather sealed pro kit. I grabbed a camera rain cover, hand towel and a rain coat for my self and we headed out.

I am glad we did – I made mistakes – but you know what? You really DO learn from your mistakes! I learned that 1/60 sec was too slow for panning – until I improve my technique. I learned that f/4 would probably have been better than f/2.8 to get sharper photos of the horses thundering towards me. I got to try out my new shorty-forty – which worked well for some of the wider angle panning. I also learned that the 1DX has a really bright viewfinder and is built like a tank!

Here are some of my favourites:

70mm

f/4

ISO 250

1/50 sec.

 

 

330mm

f/5.6

ISO 1600

1/500 sec.

 

140mm

f/5.6

ISO 1600

1/500 sec.

 

140mm

f/5.6

ISO 1600

1/250 sec.

 

40mm

f/2.8

ISO 250

1/125 sec.

 

Gear:

Camera: Canon 50D + Grip

Lenses: Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS, Canon 40mm f/2.8, Canon 2x TC II

Manfrotto Monopod

Adobe Lightroom 3.6